


Aftermath

by sugarthot



Category: Splatoon
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 05:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14948600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarthot/pseuds/sugarthot
Summary: Marina has a nightmare.





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> this was written a day before the octo expansion came out, so i was aware that things would be pretty inaccurate, and they are. regardless, the only thing that was out of place was how she and pearl met, but i think that's okay! anyway, please let me know if there are spelling errors :]

_Pearl._

_Pearl._

_Where am I?_

_It’s dark. There’s a- monument, of some kind, floating in the air. Around the monument, smaller islands float by some invisible force. The islands hold rubble and shredded telephone wire, and there is no one in sight. This place is devoid of all natural life._

_No. This isn't- this can't be real. I left this place- I did- I can't be here again. This should have been destroyed. They said it was destroyed. I watched it fall apart._

**It’s real.**

_Who said that?_

**You know who I am.**

_Pearl?_

_There she is. I was so worried-_

_No. No no no no no no no n_

_Her skin is sickly pale and green. Her crown is crooked and cracked, her usual pink now a gross red. Her tentacles look starved, somehow, and dead. Her eyes are covered by an unusual mask, specially fitted to control what she sees. Her signature outfit is gone, replaced by a tight-fitting leather two piece. The single red light in the left lens of her mask is haunting._

_This is- horrifying._

**The word you’re looking for is _inevitable._**

_No, no, Pearlie, please… you can’t leave me now, you can’t--_

_I was too late._

_This is my fault._

_I did this to her._

**Marina.**

_She’s close now._

**Marina.**

_She’s right there.  
She’s right in front of me._

**Marina.**

_Damn it, there are tears in my eyes._

**_Marina._ **

_How could this have happened?_

 

“Marina!”

Marina’s face is wet and hot, and as soon as her eyes open, she can see a distinct pink blob hovering right above her. 

“ _No! No!_ ” Marina is screaming in fear, “ _no! Pearl! No no no no no no no no no no--_ ”

“Marina! Marina! Calm down, it’s just me!” Pearl assures her, holding down Marina’s shoulders as she kicks and screams.

“ _P--,_ ” Marina settles, blinking the tears out of her eyes rapidly, “ _Pearl?_ ”

“It’s me, Marina. I’m right here.” Pearl looks frightened and concerned, and Marina is now becoming aware of what is going on. Pearl’s wearing her blue “Chirpy Chips” retro shirt, which is way too big and hangs from her small frame like a nightdress. The room- Marina’s room- is dark, save for the light on in the hallway just outside her door. 

As Marina stares at Pearl, tears begin to well up in her eyes again.

“ _Pearl, I-_ ” she grabs Pearl’s shirt and sobs into it, “ _Pearlie, I dreamed that I was back home and everything was ruined and I couldn’t have been there, you were sanitized and you said it was real but it couldn’t have been, ‘cuz they destroyed it, you said they destroyed it, it is destroyed, isn’t it Pearlie?_ ” Pearl stares, her eyes huge and searching.

“Marina-” she puts her hand on Marina’s wrist, which is clenching her shirt so tightly that the seams are ripping, “I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

“ _What?_ ” 

“Mari, you’re speaking Octarian. I don’t understand you,” her voice is gentle, “please talk in Inkling, my Octarian isn’t good enough to understand what you’re saying.”

Marina stares at her for a few seconds before laughing weakly. Pearl holds her hand, smiling back at her kindly. Marina wipes her eyes before mentally preparing herself enough to switch to Inkling. Before she speaks, she releases Pearl’s shirt and pats the space on the bed next to her. Pearl sidles in beside her, letting Marina rest her head on Pearl’s chest. As Marina explains her dream, Pearl listens silently, gently rubbing Marina’s tentacles. By the end, Marina is no longer crying, and Pearl hasn’t spoken in a while.

“Pearl?” at first Marina thinks she’s asleep, but Pearl hums in response, meaning that she’s thinking.

Marina counts the specks on the ceiling as Pearl formulates a response. Marina wouldn’t be here without Pearl; she owes everything she has to her. If she hadn’t saved her from the collapsing society of the Octarians, she would still be there, clawing for an escape as a mindless drone. Pearl had introduced her to life above ground, to cephalopod culture, to a life worth living. She had given her another chance that she never would have gotten underground, and Marina would surely have died if not for her. If not from the rigorous octoling training, the falling stalagmites and loss of power, or the trauma, life would have found another way. How could one individual possibly be so generous? When Marina had first met her, when she appeared in the Octarian domain, she had been terrified. Squids were supposed to vicious and deadly, completely driven towards dooming Octarians and wiping them out forever, because that’s what they did. If not, why would they deny Octarians electricity? Vital resources? Why would they have forced them underground so long ago? Inklings were animalistic and territorial, and led their lives on pure instinct. That’s why they had to scratch and fight to get any resources they could, that’s why Octavio “stole” their zapfish and forced the Octolings to defend them. Octavio cared for them and did what he had to in order to preserve their way of life. 

But when Pearl came, everything Marina was taught crumbled away. When Pearl, or Agent 5, was pointing that Hero Shot at her, she felt nothing but fear. She was afraid, because she had let her people down. She was afraid because she didn’t want things to be that way; “them or us”. She wanted to live in the best possible way. She didn’t want to fight for her life. And perhaps Agent 5 saw that in her, because she pointed the gun right between Marina’s eyes and blasted her goggles off of her face, and she saw the world for the first time. She saw the colors and the hope and the third option that she never had known had existed, and she saw Pearl. She saw the freedom she had given her, and she saw the escape from the world she had always known. And she was grateful. Pearl had pulled her out of that place, unable to save anyone else but Marina, and promised her that she would never have to go back there again if she wanted. From that point on, Marina _felt._ She felt emotions, she felt ideas and independent thought, she felt happiness and anger and fear, and she would break down from the overwhelming sensation that was feeling. And Pearl helped her. She never left her side, and helped her understand feeling and stayed with her when feeling was too much. And when Marina had seen Pearl sanitized, she had never felt more afraid. Sanitization wasn’t nearly the same as the goggles, in fact it was a thousand times worse (having all emotions and thoughts ripped away from you permanently, never allowing you to feel again, never letting you see any options), but the thought of Pearl having to bear anything like what Marina had to was enough to make her want to be put in her place. Pearl didn’t deserve that pain.

Now, in her bedroom, her head on Pearl’s chest, she can’t help feeling that it is all going to be taken away again; That this was just a test, that these years of freedom weren’t real and that as soon as she had it all taken away she was going to realize that there is no such thing as peace between the inklings and octarians, and that freedom is just a cruel joke that people play in order to make you feel like you have a choice. 

“It wasn’t real, Marina. It was a nightmare.” Pearl’s voice startles Marina, because she’s breaking down again and she doesn’t know if she can stop it, but Pearl is _right there_ , “It wasn’t real. That place was destroyed, I promise you, and you are never going to have to face that ever again. And I will not leave you, because we are partners and partners don’t leave each other.” she’s looking up at the ceiling now, Marina can feel her chin resting on top of her head, “and I will do whatever it takes to makes sure that you are safe.”

They’re both silent for the next three minutes, and Pearl only realizes that Marina has fallen asleep when she starts to let out quiet, gentle snores. She grins to herself and pulls Marina next her, kissing her small unconscious smile. As she pulls Marina’s blanket over both of them, she is sure of her previous words, because she loves Marina and knows she deserves so much more than what she has. She deserves to feel safe.


End file.
